Remember that ominous, eerie whooshing sound we used to hear as we went about our daily business in Dallas? Sometimes it was faint, a sort of soft but pesky ffffththsssshhh that made it a wee bit difficult to focus. Sometimes it was loud, a terrible thundering whoooorsshshshshsh!

It was the sound of a ramen vacuum.

Now that vortex has been filled — by so many bowls of brothy noodles sloshing out from the kitchen at Tanoshii Ramen + Bar.

The whooshing has been replaced by a buzzing: Every night it’s open, the spacious Deep Ellum dining hall is filled with a young, vibrant, eclectic crowd that seems thrilled to have been granted its wish for ramen. The 21/2-month-old restaurant is an instant hit.

Unlike typical ramen houses in Japan (or even in Los Angeles, whose large Japanese-American population has been slurping up inexpensive, soulful bowls of the noodles for decades), Tanoshii is a real restaurant, with Japanese-accented craft cocktails, a panoply of appetizers, a thoughtful sake list, assorted desserts and an attentive waitstaff. The inviting dining room, with its long communal table, open kitchen and bar in the center of the action, strikes a happy balance. It’s as casual as you’d want a ramen emporium to be, yet attractive and comfortable enough to spend a sociable evening. A mural depicting the Monkey King, a Chinese literary character who coincidentally lends his name to a noodle shop a few blocks away, adds colorful pizazz to one wall.

Chef-owners Lan Chi Le and Joey Le, a married couple who also own Wicked Po’Boys and Seafood in Richardson and the just-opened Miss Chi Vietnamese in Preston Center, use a high-output Yamato noodle machine to make their ramen in-house; Yamato’s website says it can produce 100 to 150 portions per hour. The noodles it makes are nicely springy and pleasantly firm. Could they use a little more texture to soak up the broth? Sure; they’re on the smooth side. But they’re not bad at all.

Noodles are only part of any ramen equation, though — there’s also the all-important matter of the broth. At Tanoshii, the marquee broth — the rich, porky one known as tonkotsu — is a good effort, but it lacks depth and dimension. The resulting bowl of ramen, topped with a slice of pork belly, chewy wood ear mushrooms, half an impeccably boiled egg (runny yolk, firmish white), scallions, daikon sprouts, roasted sesame seeds and sliced bamboo, may be satisfying, but unfortunately it falls short of soulful. One easy fix would be to use pickled bamboo (menma); the sliced bamboo that garnishes nearly every bowl of ramen at Tanoshii was consistently bland. The broth, though, seems to call for some soul-searching. A generous dose of chile sauce helped to vivify it one night, but doctoring shouldn’t be required.

Still, the tonkotsu is the Les’ best bowl. Spicy miso ramen featured a thin-tasting, vaguely tangy yet one-note broth with gentle heat and similar toppings, along with corn kernels, a nod to miso ramen’s Hokkaido origin. I kept wishing, over the course of three visits, for more variations in the toppings from dish to dish. A bowl of tsuke-men, “soupless” noodles rolled slightly thinner and cut narrower, were served with an overwhelmingly intense and salty dipping broth. They swapped toasted nori (seaweed) strips for mushrooms but had garnishes otherwise nearly identical to the tonkotsu’s.

Other noodle bowls take a pan-Asian detour, such as ramen in a lightly sweet yet one-dimensional Thai-accented coconut curry broth, topped with giant mussels and nicely tempuraed shrimp. Those thinner noodles, fortified with pork-and-shrimp-filled dumplings and tender hanks of poached chicken, came in a soft lemon-grass-chicken broth. It reminded me of a Southeast Asian version of my grandma’s chicken noodle and kreplach soup, though grandma’s leaden kreplach were no match for Tanoshii’s tender dumplings.

The Les had the smart idea to lead off the menu with izakaya-style (Japanese tavernish) bites, but I kept wishing they weren’t so starch-forward. There are frilly little gyozas filled with pork and shrimp and daintily pan-fried, served with a soy dipping sauce, and Chinese- style steamed buns slathered with spicy mayo and stuffed with pork belly and iceberg lettuce. Banh xeo crêpes (the Les are Vietnamese) got a bit lost in their stretchy rice-paper wrappers; the better of the two versions was filled (once again) with shrimp and pork, along with scallions and crunchy jicama.

But when you’re about to be faced with a big bowl of noodles, it would be nicer to begin with something fresh, some veg or protein bites — ideally something more original than boiled edamame or grilled shishitos. Hamachi sashimi with a serrano chile kick doused in ponzu is the right idea; it’s likable one night, unpleasantly sinewy another. What about things like Japanese pickles, sunomono, yakitori skewers and such, or jazzy izakaya snacks like moro-q (raw cucumber with miso paste) or Japanese sausages?

Instead there are deep-fried mandu dumplings filled with tofu and kimchi, or cubes of panko-coated fried tofu, served with a silly sweet red dipping sauce. Roasted bone marrow — with a stack of croutons on which to spread it (more starch!) — seemed to have escaped from a different restaurant.

Cocktail consultant Jules Pagan’s drinks — such as the sprightly Japanese Cocktail, with cognac, lime and house-made orgeat, or the broad- shouldered Big in Japan, with Hakushu 12-year whiskey, Angostura bitters and orange and lime oils — are well- conceived, though they’re sometimes mixed too sweet. If you’re afraid to risk it, go for one of six Japanese whiskeys, a Hitachino Japanese craft beer or a sake from the small, well-selected list.

All that aside, Tanoshii has such winning personality — along with excellent service and, after all is said and done, a very decent bowl of ramen — that it is certainly worth a visit.

Follow Leslie Brenner on Twitter at @lesbren.

Tanoshii Ramen + Bar (2 stars)

Price: $$ (appetizers $5 to $12; ramen $9 to $12; desserts $7 to $8)

Service: Attentive, knowledgeable about the menu and more professional than you might expect at such a casual spot

Ambience: A spacious ramen emporium with an inviting bar, high ceilings, a colorful Monkey King mural and an open kitchen. There’s a communal table in front, plus a long bench-banquette and high bar tables.

Noise level: Full as the dining room was on every visit, it was somewhat noisy, but conversation was not difficult.

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